I’ve known Jack Tung since this past summer through mutual friends. He’s real laid-back and unassuming- the kind of guy who most likely has a lot to say, but won’t really say much unless you ask him. He invited me to come see him play one night deep in the boonies of Long Island, NY. A friend and I braved the torrential downpour to a tiny dive in the middle of nowhere. The opening act was an inept punk band whose best song was a cover of Greenday’s “American Idiot” which had just come out. The bar patrons- young, hoodied, and suburbanly bored to the max, all seemed severely disinterested in the proceedings. It was in this context that Jack quietly setup, unnoticed in the back of the room. His soft-spoken introduction into the mic was a dud- the thing wasn’t even plugged in! But it didn’t matter. Once he started playing, heads began to turn. How could one guy with a guitar, drum machine, sampler, and a stack sound like twenty different people at once? He lulled us with ambience, and ripped our faces off with evil precision riffage. He was in total control of every layer of sound. The cute bespectacled bartender chick was watching in disbelief. (Okay, I wasn’t paying 100% attention to Jack.) That night, Jack sold quite a few cds and made some fans, myself included. Now, it’s one thing to hear or read a description of what Jack does, but truly, seeing is believing in this case. Zeus-willing all the world will know of his immense talent- one dive bar at a time.

Give us a brief bio. Where were you born? Where’d you grow up? Things like that.
I moved to NY from Taiwan at the age of 5 and I've been here, in Franklin Square, Long Island, ever since. My father decided to open a stationary store where I got a daily dose of 101.1 CBS FM [oldies], LOTTO, and all the free candy in the world, it seemed, at a very young age.

What's your history as a fan of music? What’s the first music you liked- and take it from there.
Skateboarding actually had a lot to do with how I became a musician. When I got into skateboarding in the late 80s, I stumbled across a skateboarding video called "Santa Cruz: Speed Freaks" which had just about every band on the SST label and early DISCHORD. I was introduced to loud, fast bands like Minutemen, fIREHOSE, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Bad Brains, etc. But what hit me the hardest was actually Dinosaur Jr. (least likely to be labeled as hardcore/punk). "Freak Scene" was the first song I ever heard from the band, and the guitar solo made me want to play music that was just as chaotic and fuzzy. I didn't understand it at the time, but it definitely triggered something. I can honestly say that J. Mascis influenced me to pick up the guitar. I love that man.

What are some of your other influences? Musical and also non-musical, whatever you feel applies.
There was a post-hardcore scene that emerged in the early-to-mid 90s that was very short-lived and quickly forgotten, with bands like Statue, Into Another, Embrace (US), Rites of Spring, etc. Their riffs and time signatures were so inventive and unusual to me. And to this day, I still return to those records for inspiration. I mean, I wouldn't even know how to explain it or what to call it. It was just a time, if that makes sense.

Films definitely have an influence in my music. Without sounding too pretentious, I suppose visual stimulations help me tap into feelings I'm unfamiliar with, and ultimately influence how I play (or at least that's what I'd like to think). For instance, the song "Focus" was inspired by the Sophia Coppola film Lost in Translation. The film completely blew me away and it immediately left a dent. The first riff I played in the song was the first thing that kind of came to me when I picked up the guitar after watching that film. "Focus" was named after Focus Features.

What is your musical performance history? What bands have you been in?
Just like how skateboarding is loud and fast, I wanted to play music that was loud and fast as well, emulating the same philosophy. So the first few bands I played in (EBT, All Rights Reserved, Dead Clients Don't Pay, Heart Work) were very fast, and uncontrollably screamy. The concept of the film Pi inspired the last band I was in at the time, THE GOLDEN RATIO, and perhaps that helped gear me to the state I'm currently in.

How did you end up doing what you do today musically? How did you discover your style?
Egos broke up The Golden Ratio band, which somewhat left me in seclusion (musically) and unwilling to work with anybody. So I took a long hiatus and began working backwards. I went back to the basics and fell in love with the music I grew up with again. Like how that particular mid-90s post-hardcore scene I mentioned earlier brought a different style of music, I also wanted to make something different. I guess I wanted to be a part of that philosophy. I grew sick and tired of new music and literally buried myself in my room with my records and began formulating. But I had no intentions in playing shows or ending up as a solo act. I just wanted to have fun again.

Where are you headed artistically, and what are your goals?
Nowadays, I'm very unsure. At one time I wanted to pursue a career in writing musical scores for film. But I seriously doubt I have the commitment for such a medium. The process of film making is extremely stressful and demanding. And I'm just honestly not cut out for that sort of game. Nor am I looking to be the next Cornelius or whatever, as far as music goes. I'm not looking to make money, which is why I only charge $2 for the demo. And if I'm in a good mood (which is pretty often) and I get positive feedback, I'd hook people up. However right now, I just want to concentrate on playing shows and continue writing music. Everything else is secondary.

Talk about the recording of your cd. How did it come about? What was it like? Any stories from the studio?
If it hadn't been for my brother David stumbling into my room in the middle of the night drunk, I wouldn't have gotten this far with my music. "Jack, what are you doing... we have to record this... I can get you into the studio I'm working at right now…. they have Protools, what do ya say," asked David. "Um, okay," I replied.

Our plan was to go in guerrilla style, record, and leave. Neither one of us knew how to operate Protools the night of the recording. We went into the studio blindfolded and did what we could. David managed to find the "record button." PERFECT. All he had to do was set up two mics, press record and I was set to play. 8 hours later, we came out of that studio with the very 8 songs on my cd demo.

There's one very funny story about the recording. After the recording, we packed everything up and was about to load everything back into the car, and head right home. This was about 7am on a Sunday snowy morning. As we got to the street, the car was gone. It turned out that the car was parked in a no-parking zone, and ultimately towed to the west side. FUCK. Since it was a Sunday, everything was closed. So we had no choice but to leave all my equipment at the studio, go home and wait until Monday to resolve everything. And trust me, it took ALL of Monday to resolve EVERYTHING. It was a nightmare. MOTHERFUCK. So it was because of this incident that I named the cd demo, "9, Operator" which was what we had to dial (for information on the towing company) several times on the phone from the studio. "9, Operator" was a short-lived joke between my brother and myself, and it soon faded away from the demo covers as well.

So what did you do after you had this recording? How has it been trying to promote yourself?
Promoting is a bitch when you're solo, but it's not like I went about it the correct way either. Negating myself from being labeled as a generic solo bar act, I began scanning for promoters in the local hardcore/punk scene (a scene I was familiar with, grew up in, and felt that it would be a good start for myself since they've done so much in my past projects). I wanted to throw myself back in there again and mix things up. But I eventually found out the hard way that the scene had moved on without me and become something else (something very disappointing). I thought to myself, this was my punishment for shutting myself out. And so I began playing bars for Harley bikers, local drunks, and kids I've never met and didn't even give a damn about what I wanted to do. I also sent them out to labels and got zero feedback. So I fell again. But I didn't have the enthusiasm to pick myself back up, though I had enough to keep my head above water. I mean, I am still here, aren't I? Hehe. So I'm still trying.

You took me to a screening of a short film that you did the soundtrack for. How did that come about? What was it like working on that?
BEAT was an idea that came up around the time I recorded my cd demo. But apparently the writing team was experiencing a writing block or something and couldn't figure out a complete thought. I knew about this project for a while and secretly wanted to work with them on it, but I didn't want to interfere (unless they asked me to). And one day, they asked! So they told me the synopsis and I was affected immediately. I wrote a few scraps here and there....and they dug it! And before I knew it, I was in my room working on the score! The great thing about the film was that it was pretty much a silent film, since the main actor was deaf. So I felt obligated to create something that complimented the story and the visuals. The concept was very sad and depressing. Plus the process of creating and recording was extremely stressful. But I loved how it eventually turned out.

Talk about your compositional process. How does it get started? Do you hear things in your head? Are you able to do the things you imagine?
Like films, I want a beginning, middle, and end to a song. One of my methods of writing is that I'd like it to somewhat tell a story. Let's say a story has a twist at the end. Now, if I can somehow convey that concept into a song, that'd be great. I mean, songs can sound schizo, too. Like in Pulp Fiction, how every scene was scrambled... Scrambling parts up in a song could be another idea. You can find ideas in just about anything. There's no conventional way of writing. I like being in that state.

What are you listening to these days? What are you a big fan of currently?
I absolutely cannot stop listening to Deerhoof. They are amazing in every way. I love classical music as well, like Debussy. Perhaps that's why classical music fits so well with film- because they're both very moody and unpredictable. Like, one full symphony (or sonata) can cover an entire spectrum of moods within a film. Jay-Z's Black Album is genius. Faye Wong is another artist I cannot stop listening to. She's a popular Mandarin singer from Beijing that sounds very similar to the Sundays and the Cranberries. I don't care if it's cheesy sometimes. Call me a sellout. Do it! Ha.

Website: http://www.jacktungmusic.com